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Monday, 23 September 2013

Finnish Champs this weekend was up and down for me. On saturday I fucked up the in the qualification to the middle, but in the relay yesterday, Vaajakosken Terä took the double, and I even managed to keep Gueorgiou behind me in the sprint.

Middle distance

Before the qualification race I was a bit unsecure of the level and how I should do my race. Everyone have been telling me the level is really high and you can't afford to make any mistakes if you want to be among the 8 best in one of the 6 heats. So I started out in full speed and tried to stay in control of my orienteering. But already to the 2.control i misread the contours and lost 30 seconds. And to 7th I I had a very bad direction and it took forever before I realised my mistake and also before I found the right control (1½ minute). Otherwise the race was ok, but only good enough for 14th spot in my heat, 1min50sec from the leader and 50 seconds from the final. Pretty high level I must say and hopefully I've learned something for next year...
In the final the Terä guys did well and we had 4 amongst the 10 best, and with Pasi taking a bronze medal. It was great to see him back on track.

Relay

I was very dissapointed with my qualification, also because I was "fighting" with Anders Nordberg to get the spot in Terä's 1.team for the relay (only 1 foreigner in a team): But he did well in the middle, so I was "only" selected for the last leg in our second team. A young and talented team, but could we really fight for medals?
The boys did a great job in the first 3 legs, and we were close to the lead most of the relay. Unfortunately Toni missed some minutes on the 3.leg, but could still send me out as number 3, 2½ minute behind our 1.team with Pasi on last leg, and 1½ minute behind MS Parma and Stepan Kodeda. I started out with Hiidenkiertäjät and Lauri Sild, and less than 1 minute before Kalevan Rasti and Thierry Gueorgiou.

I was running controlled in the beginning and did the job together with Lauri Sild, as we had the same forkings on the first 5 controls. On the way to 4.control I could hear someone coming from behind and Gueorgiou was already closing the gap. But to 6th control Sild had another forking and suddenly I was alone. I was running well in the middle part and didn't see the others, but didn't know if Gueorgiou was in front of me. Punching the 12th control, I could hear someone coming from the side and it was Kodeda. I was not finding the optimal routes to 13 and 14, but was getting a bigger gap to Kodeda. The last loop looked quite easy but with some tough uphills. To 16 and 17 I still had a comfortable gap to Kodeda, but to 18 I thought it would be wise to stay high on the hillside to avoid climbing. But the runnability was really bad in the hillside and I could see Kodeda going fast in the bottom of the hill and he was suddenly in front of me at 3.last control. On the way to last control, Kodeda was still in front of me, but he went a bit left and I was following a big track going straight through the green and thought that this would be my chance. I was pushing hard uphill to the last control, and could hear that I was in front. When I punched the last control I thought that my gap to Kodeda was big enough so I didn't have to sprint all I could, but when I looked over my shoulder to my surprise I suddenly saw Gueorgiou some meters behind me. FUCK...!

I gave all I had in the beginning of the sprint and it seemed like he was not getting closer, and I realised that this was possible. It was a great feeling crossing the finish line and to see the joy and happiness in my teammates and in the 1.team, who had won 1½ minute before. I'm glad I had the power in the end, because beating Kalevan Rasti (with 2 teams) is a very big thing to my finnish teammates and the people behind Vaajakosken Terä. And it is very promising for the future to see the high level in our club.

The terrain was really nice and the course was good and demanding with a lot of forkings (at control 1,2,3,5,6,7,10,11,13,14,19). But maybe a bit unfair to have a forking on 2.last control, so close to the finnish. I had the short one together with Kodeda, but Gueorgiou had a longer on (the rock)...

It was a good performance for me on the relay, and I even had the 2.best leg-time of all runners, which is good for the self-confidence. Now I heading back to Denmark, and will try to do a good last preparation before the World Cup Final i Switzerland in 2 weeks.

Monday, 16 September 2013

After WOC I was very tired in every way and tried to relax as good as possible, but still kept in mind that World Games would start 2½ weeks later.

The trip to Colombia and The World Games was a great experience. The atmosphere in Cali and the support from the locals was amazing, and even though they are not used to organize events like that, things went smoothly most of the time... My shape was ok, but I had problems with jet-lag in the first sprint-race and couldn't perform as hoped. The middle distance was better, and I finished in 10th spot, after a ok race, but still with some stupid mistakes in the bamboo-jungle. The high-light of the week for the Danish Team, was surely the sprint-relay, as we had a strong team to fight for the medals. I was running 1st leg, and had the long forkings on the first 5 out of 6 possibilities, so I didn't see the leaders after the first control, even though I was running really well. Unfortunately I got a big bamboo-thorn through my shoe and into my big toe halfway through the race, and it was quite big (2cm), and impossible to get out, so I just had to live with the pain... Running on my heel and outer part og the foot wasn't very efficient, and I couldn't follow the group in the end. But the others did a good job and partly because of several mispunches, we came 2nd. A great end to the games.

Holiday and WOC 2014 trainingcamp

Coming back to Denmark, me and Ane went almost straight on a holiday to Rome and Naples in Southern Italy. It was nice to relax and be tourist, but we still had some nice runs (espacially on Mt. Vesuvius and the Amalfi Coast).

After 8 days of pizza, beaches and churces we went to Milan, and met the rest of the Danish Team on the way on WOC 2014 training camp in Asiago. I was good to get an impression of the terrains, even though I have been in almost all the embargoed areas and training maps with the National Team in 2006 and 2009 (except the sprint areas).

Danish Champs in Middle-distance

It is not often that you get the possibility to run in a new terrain and map in Denmark, but this year they got access to use Thorsø Bakker, south of Silkeborg. A great and quite hilly terrain, but also with some green areas, where you had to be careful. The map and course was good I think, maybe except the long leg, which didn't have much routechoice. I did a good technical performance and even though we got back from the training camp 14 hours before the race, I was still fast enough to win.

Danish Champs in Relay and Longdistance

This weekend Klinteskoven on Møn was again ready for 1000 Danish orienteers to fight for honour and glory. The forest is quite unique in this part of Denmark and it is always a pleasure to run here. This time was no exception. Søllerød OK and O-63 had really done a great job with the map, courses and the arena, and I can't find anything to complain about, which not happens often :)

In the relay, Faaborg OK's old stars Mikkel Lund and Christian Nielsen ran the 2 first legs and I ran the last. Pan Århus was too strong for us (with a comeback to a motivated and fast Søren Bobach), and I had a tough fight with Rune Olsen on the last leg. I took a better routechoice in the end and we got a silver medal.

The Longdistance was 14,9km. I did a very good race, and made only a few 5-10 seconds mistakes, and I also felt strong in my running. My performance was good enough for another goldmedal like last year, with Rasmus Djurhuus and Rune Olsen, 4 and 5 minutes behind. It's always difficult to say how good my race would have been compared to the best in the world, but when I looked at the course from EOC 2004 Longdistance in the same forest, I could see that my pace would just have been good enough for a goldmedal back then. And so would Emma Klingenbergs race in W21. Of course the courses were different, and the terrain has maybe changed a bit, but it's still good to know that my level is very high at the moment.

On thursday I will travel to Finland, to participate in the Finnish Champs in Middle and Relay. I have heard rumours about the qualification race, and that it is pretty difficult to make it to the final, with 320 runners in M21... But I will give it a try, or otherwise just save the energy for the relay on sunday where Vaajakosken Terä have several strong teams.